THE number of people dying from the MRSA “superbug”, an infection associated with hospitals, has risen more than 15-fold in the past decade.

It was directly responsible, or an underlying cause, of 800 deaths in 2002, compared with just 51 cases in 1993. Laboratory reports of MRSA blood poisoning also rose sharply over the same period, from 210 cases to more than 5,300.

The Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus bacterium — known as MRSA — now affects more than 7,000 hospital patients a year.

Politicians described the figures published by the Health Protection Agency yesterday as shocking and unacceptable.

Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, admitted that more needed to be done. Government initiatives, including MRSA hospital league tables, were helping to address the problem. “Preventing and reducing hospital infection rates and the main superbugs is a key priority for the NHS,” he said. “We share this problem with other countries, but we are determined to be up with the best in tackling it.

“While these infections will never be entirely preventable, there is more that can be done — and is being done — to deal with this problem.”

Staphylococcus aureus is commonly found on the skin and in the nose of about one third of healthy people, where it does no harm. MRSA is an antibiotic-resistant strain that behaves in the same way.

However, in certain circumstances — for instance, if the person has breaks in their skin or is very vulnerable to infection because of a medical condition or treatment — MRSA may enter the body. Then it can cause infections of varying grades of severity, with those in intensive care and on surgical wards most vulnerable.

Georgina Duckworth, an MRSA expert with the agency, said that the infection could be contained with proper care. “It has always been difficult to establish how many people die directly as a result of an infection with MRSA, because there is no separate category on routine death certificates for MRSA, and people who suffer from MRSA are usually very sick already and therefore vulnerable to infection,” she said.

“By following good infection control procedures, the spread of MRSA and other infections in hospital can be limited and controlled.”

It is the second study carried out by the agency and the Office for National Statistics, which have tried to estimate the overall contribution MRSA makes to mortality.

Paul Burstow, health spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the new data only hinted at the huge problem of hospital hygiene. “These figures are shocking and unacceptable and are the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “The human and financial cost of hospital infections is a scandal. Poor hospital hygiene is wasting money and costing lives.

“Ministers have failed to take this issue seriously. People go into hospital to get better. But they are getting sicker because of staff shortages and because infection control is not a high enough priority.”

Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, said the figures were a shocking indication of government failure. “The Government’s answer, which was to appoint yet more managers, is unlikely to succeed,” Mr Lansley said. “Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the chief executive of each hospital.

“Deaths involving MRSA can be prevented. What is needed is for hospitals to implement best practice. Lessons from hospitals that have introduced protocols and techniques that are demonstrating results must be passed on to all hospitals. Real power must be handed back to the nurses in charge of the wards.”

In December the Government stepped up measures to tackle MRSA outbreaks, publishing a league table of the best and worst-performing NHS trusts to allow people to see how their hospital was fighting the problem. Sir Liam announced that “bug-buster” bosses would be appointed in every hospital to impose strict rules to cut infections.

Simple measures such as making sure doctors and nurses wash their hands between patients and limiting the use of invasive procedures such as drips could greatly reduce the rate of infections.

Overall, hospital-acquired infections strike about 100,000 people every year in England, resulting in some 5,000 deaths and costing £1 billion.

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